March 2014

This week, the President released his proposed budget for FY2015. The President's budget serves as a guideline for the congressional appropriations committees, who will now begin drafting FY2015 spending bills. The budget includes some mixed news for programs the ATS monitors, with a small increase for the NIH. The proposed budget provides the following for agencies that the ATS monitors:

• A funding level of $30.126 billion for the NIH, which is a $200 million, or 0.7% increase over the FY2014 funding level of $29.934 million.
• A funding level of $6.606 billion for the CDC, which is a $243 million, or 3.7% cut below the FY2014 level of $6.849 billion.
• $135 million for CDC's domestic TB program, flat-funding with FY2014
• $24.7 million for CDC's asthma program, flat-funding with FY2014
• $205 million for CDC's tobacco control program, flat-funding with FY2014
• A funding level of $7.890 billion for the EPA, which is a $309.9 million, or 3.7% cut below the FY2014 level of $8.289 billion.
• A funding level of $589 million for the VA Research program, which is a $3 million, or 0.5% funding increase over the FY2014 level of $586 million.
• A funding level of $191 million for USAID's global TB program, a 19% cut from the FY2014 level of $236 million.

Additional program-specific FY2015 funding levels will be released on March 10, so we will have more information on CDC and other programs, such as the National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOSH). At this point, the appropriations process is moving according to regular order in which congressional committees pass bills through committee level, followed by full chamber votes, rather than end-of-year omnibus packages, as has been the case for the several years. However, the 2014 congressional election may complicate the situation during the summer.